1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brewed coffee vending machine. More particularly, it relates to a brewed coffee vending machine which includes a coffee reheating device that serves to reheat coffee procured by an extractor immediately before it is dispensed to consumers, thereby ensuring that the coffee will be at a pleasurable temperature.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A vending machine generally holds packs of cigarettes, containers of coffee, tea and other soft drinks which consumers can purchase and receive automatically. As shown in FIG. 4, which depicts the overall interior construction of a brewed coffee vending machine, the brewed coffee vending machine includes a cabinet 10 which constitutes the outer appearance of the vending machine, a ground coffee bean receptacle 20 that holds ground coffee beans, and an extractor 30 that is installed under the ground coffee bean receptacle 20 to extract coffee by jetting pressurized air into the mixture of the ground coffee beans and hot water, after which the coffee is moved to a mixing container 12.
The extractor 30 includes a brewing unit 22 which mixes the ground coffee beans with hot water, a filtering mechanism (not illustrated) that filters out the coffee grounds, and a pressure device (not illustrated) which furnishes pressurized air required for the filtering process. The brewed coffee vending machine also includes flavoring material receptacles 11 that are installed on one side of the cabinet 10's interior, respectively holding sugar, cream and specially-treated dried leaves for making tea, and the mixing container 12, which is installed under the flavoring material receptacles 11, in which flavoring materials are mixed with hot water. The extractor 30 is connected with the mixing container 12 by a coffee conduit 40, and the mixing container 12 is connected to a drink supply conduit 41 through which a newly made drink is supplied to a cup dispenser 13.
The following description relates to the operation of the conventional brewed coffee vending machine.
When brewed coffee is selected from a control panel on the vending machine by a consumer, a set amount of ground coffee beans from the ground coffee bean receptacle 20 and hot water from the hot water container 21 are poured into the brewing unit 22, in which the two are mixed.
Next, the mixture of ground coffee beans and hot water is supplied to the filtering mechanism (not illustrated) of the extractor 30. The pressure device (not illustrated) then applies pressure to the mixture, thereby extracting the coffee from the mixture through the filter (not illustrated). The coffee is then delivered to the mixing container 12 through the coffee supply conduit 40. In the mixing container 12 it is mixed with a given amount of sugar, cream or both, and is discharged into the cup dispenser 13 by way of the drink supply conduit 41.
Through the above procedure, the brewed coffee vending machine dispenses brewed coffee with rich taste and aroma to customers. However, the above-described steps, which are utilized by the conventional brewed coffee vending machine, do not supply adequately heated coffee to the consumer because, compared to the rapid speed at which instant coffee is dispensed, these steps proceed at slow pace which allows the coffee to cool.